Compaq iPAQ 3650 Color Pocket PC

I got an iPAQ about 3 weeks ago. So far I’m very impressed with it, and starting to replace the 2″ thick “Brain book” I was carrying with me. The unit’s capabilites are very impressive — I use it for

- Schedule planner (synch with home and work)

- Read email, including Word and Excel attachments

- Address/ contacts data

- Notes (including free hand simple drawings)

- Business applications (mainly spreadsheet)

- MP3 player

- Personal pictures (JPGs) although this is a small screen

- Ebook reader using Project Gutenberg text files.

I have not owned a PDA before, and was not impressed by friends’ Palms since they appeared to be just electronic address and calendars. This is *quite* a bit more…

Good Points -

- Excellent screen — very bright and colorful (although other people have reported dust under the screen, I have not found any)

- Word and Excel. In my professional life I live on these. I have several self written Excel spreadsheet on the iPAQ which aid me greatly in daily working enviroments. And it’s really impressive to see a client’s reaction when I pull out the iPAQ and do a company valuation or financial model spreadsheet on my PDA. These are “Pocket” versions of Word and Excel, so they don’t have the full features of the desktop versions, but for something I can put in my shirt pocket and take with me, they are quite functional.

- Ezpandability. I picked up the Compact Flash sleeve and now have a machine with essentially 100 MB RAM, using a 64 MB CF card. Using a spare card I can swap out 64 MB of data at a time — mp3s for music or data for work. This has replaced me carrying a 100 MB zip disk around.

- Power. I’ve run test MPEG video clips on this in full color and sound. 200 MHz is more than my last generation desktop’s processor power.

- Excellent handwriting recognition without needing to learn a new language. Still not as easy as just writing and took me a day to get used to, but for taking meeting notes etc it is very good.

- Versatility. Excel, word, email, mp3, games, ebooks, voice recorder, jpg viewer — I’m very impressed to get this in one device. Some of the wireless connectivity options through the expansion sleeves (CF or PCMIA wireless modem and through the installed Internet Explorer) look very impressive, although I have not tried them yet.

Could be Improved — Most of these are quibbles or personal preference…

- Connectivity. I use the provided USB cradle at home and aserial cable at work. I had to buy the serial cable for the workmachine (no USB port) and I think Compaq should have provided it.Autosynch works pretty well, but I have had some duplicate meetingsshow up on my schedule. Part of that I think, it that I am learningto use it, and switching between Outlook at home and MS Exchange atwork. Other people have reported connectivity problems that I havenot encountered.

- Battery. The unit has an internal wired inbattery which is rechargable from either the cradle or an externalpower adapter. I would have preferred a replaceable (and rechargable)battery just in case. I get from 4-6 hours of standard usage out ofthe battery now.

- Software availability. There are severalhundreds of programs availabe and more being added each week — but Iwould like to see more available including standard business products.In particular, I am *VERY* surprized there isn’t a pocket version ofPowerpoint — although I understand one is near release.

-Earphone volume is loud with earbuds, so I run it at near minimumvolume.

- Case or cover for the iPAQ. Compaq provides a smallsimple case, and aftermarket vendors have others available. I’m usinga surplus HP65 calculator case which works very well. I would havepreferred a snazzy case from Compaq to show off the machine — butthat is my personal preference.

All in all, I am *very* impressedwith this machine. There are things that could be better, but overallit is very good. People who have seen this being used by myself droolover it…

For more information on this product visit Amazon.com

HP iPAQ 111 Classic Handheld (FA979AA#ABA) (110 Series)

I just got this PDA for my son, so I’ll let him do the review…

Hello, Chris here. Well, I can say one thing, Amazon’s shipping is pretty fast when something is in stock. We got it Tuesday, after ordering it Sunday. If only all the accessories came at the same time, but it’s ok.

To the device itself..

I’ve seen review videos before, detailing the unboxing of a handheld device, thinking, why? Well, now I know why. It’s a wonderful thing to see a pretty “cool” and handy box design. The box interior, as has been seen in various reviews online, has some detail about the iPaq itself, and the handheld is well-protected from damage. Everything is organized, and I didn’t notice anything in the box that didn’t seem atleast necessary.

Setting up the iPaq was a breeze, in fact, all I did personally was just update my PC’s Adobe Acrobat Reader, and install the last freeware version of TCPMP (a media player) to the iPaq. For those of you that may be interested, yes, TCPMP v7.2 does indeed work with Windows Mobile 6. Everything else on this iPaq is “stock”, from the factory, atleast for now.

Afew things I’d like to mention.. There is a kind of glitch common to alot of iPaqs, in that ActiveSync will turn the device on quite often, trying to connect to the PC, whether there’s a cable or not. This can drain the battery “a little bit” (between 3% and 5% over 24 hours, I’ve heard). There is a fix for this if you search online, but it’s very simple. I noticed the “glitch” within afew minutes of having the iPaq out of the box, but I was prepared, and the fix worked. Also, as I’m sure many will make note of, the power button is in an “awkward” place, very close to the voice recorder button. If you hold the iPaq just right, or keep it in a clamshell case of some kind, this probably won’t be a problem, but I’ve already accidentally recorded myself, while trying to put the iPaq in it’s included slip-case. If you remember where the record button is, however, it likely won’t be a significant problem.

I know this is quick for a proper review, posting it the following morning from receiving the device in the mail, but if anything changes, I’ll update it, promise.

Wi-fi connection is very strong. Lastnight just sitting in my bedroom messing with it, I was able to connect to a neighbor’s WLAN hub, and access the internet. I haven’t been able to check out the bluetooth capability, as I don’t have anything that uses it at the moment. I don’t foresee myself getting a bluetooth keyboard in the near future, or headphones. The jack-in headphones I have work GREAT with the 3.5mm jack on the iPaq. Audio quality is fine. If you use the speaker, the only way you’ll get good output is in a mausoleum with no other noises. This device’s speaker was probably an afterthought, but that’s ok, as headphones are perfectly good. A speaker system that connects to the 3.5mm jack should work also. I have a small battery-powered one that is for mp3 players, and the iPaq connects with it nicely.

I converted a music video for play with Windows Media on the iPaq. It played ok. Windows Media on a mobile device is adequate, but I personally look for other players whenever possible, especially for larger video and audio files. The iPaq’s included PDF and TXT programs work fine. HP’s Photosmart Mobile does a great job of viewing images, but that’s expected. The device is alittle more compact than I thought, but I like it. Now that I have installed the familiar and more functional TCPMP software, I have no real complaints. Battery life is good. The device responds to my input. I can do tasks without waiting for the device to “catch up” with me. It connects via a standard mini-USB connector, however, there are some non-HP connectors that WILL NOT work with the iPaq. Please be aware of that. Some “professional” reviewers on various websites have made a point of mentioning that the iPaq won’t connect with their non-HP cable, and I think personally that’s rather juvenile. Reasonably, you can’t expect a company to be responsible if another company’s plug won’t fit in their socket, right? Just use common sense, do alittle research online, and there’s nothing at all I can complain about with this iPaq. I love it. Even though I’ve had it less than 24 hours. LOL!

**Update** Sunday, 04/27/2008
———-
While I mentioned that there was a problem with the power and record buttons being very close together, I’d like to say this afternoon I fiddled with the buttons settings, and sure enough, there is a way to shut the record button off. So, there are as of now no complaints whatsoever that I have with this PDA.

I’ve been using this iPaq for afew months now, and it’s still just as good today as the day I unboxed it. I loaded up my first feature-length movie onto SD memory the other night, and it played in WMP *FLAWLESSLY*, no visible jerking or hanging. I would also like to note, that I have not had to perform a single reset on this device yet, soft or hard, and I use it daily. I keep very little on the ROM, but I just thought I’d mention that positive from my experience. Not bad for a handheld, as I’ve heard many stories about people having to reset their device every once in awhile.

So, in short, I still love this PDA, and fully recommend it!

For more information on this product visit Amazon.com